Cell Phone Use in Army Basic Training

Cell Phone Use in Army Basic Training Cell Phone Use in Army Basic Training Recruits are no longer required to leave behind what has become a standard part of life for most adults during the Armys  basic military training, but these boot campâ€"bound soldiers, still arent able to use their cell phones in the same ways they did as civilians. The Armys cell phone policy for recruits is pretty tough. Changes recruits can expect in day-to-day cell phone use include most training platoons allowing only voice calls, no text, video, or photo exchanges, and you wont be allowed to have your phone with you at all times as you did in civilian life. Before heading to boot camp, erase any photographs or videos which could be considered lewd or pornographic. Your cell phone may be inspected during the initial briefing, and you may be required to sign a policy agreement. Sergeants Dictate Cell Phone Use Historically, standard Army basic training rules allowed for well-performing platoons to be rewarded with phone calls home on Sundays. To take advantage of this, recruits would have to stand in line at pay phones and call using a calling card  or call collect. Phone calls were generally limited to just a few minutes to make sure everyone in the platoon had a chance to call. Recruits in many Army basic training platoons are now allowed to use personal cell phones to call friends and families, send text messages, and update their social media status. Under the new policy, cell phones are kept by the drill sergeant  (DS) and returned to recruits for a period each Sunday if the DS feels the platoon has earned the privilege. Of course, recruits who dont have cell phones are still allowed to use the old pay phones, but the time allowed to make calls is still limited for all recruits, regardless of method, to between 10 and 30 minutes. Evolving Policies for Communications From Basic Military Training One of the reasons the military is so successful is their willingness to take full advantage of new technology. Most adult members of our society carry a cell phone these days, and post-basic military recruits are generally no exception. As a result, cases of military members in Iraq and Afghanistan using personal cell phones to pass on vital military information to their commands when conventional military communication means failed are somewhat common and have very likely saved lives. Other military services may or may not allow cell phone use during their basic training programs. As communications methods evolve, so will these policies.

How to Pass Employer Screening Requirements

How to Pass Employer Screening Requirements How to Pass Employer Screening Requirements In a buyer’s market, the right certifications and credentials can make the difference between an offer and a rejection. Here are tips to determining which ones you need. Just a year ago, a job seeker might have found he had 12 out of the 14 requirements listed for a job posting and applied. He stood a good chance of obtaining an interview and even a job offer.But the faltering economy has filled the job market with candidates who possess all 14 requirements and put the onus on the job seeker to possess the credentials required for the job.In boom times, employers might list a set of certifications on a job posting more as an aspirational list than a set of firm requirements. It was icing on the cake, said Shane Cox, manager of talent acquisition at Harvard Business Publishing, who spent more than a decade in financial services before switching to publishing.But in bad economies, when there are many qualified candidates out of work, a list of certifications is one more way for overb urdened hiring managers to filter candidates who don’t fit the ideal profile.Knowing how recruiters see certifications and credentials and knowing which ones are mandated, which ones are required, which ones are just beneficial and which ones are useless can help you guide your job search or retraining strategy.Required, “required” and optionalRecruiters look at two categories of “hard certifications”: those mandated by law to perform a job and those not required by law but considered beneficial. They also consider “soft credentials,” another term for specific work experience.During this recession, Cox said, more candidates are being judged on the basis of soft credentials - those not mandated by law but considered beneficial.Little has changed in certifications required by law, she said. In financial services, for example, job descriptions list the credentials a candidate must have to perform the job legally, and that hasn’t changed, Cox said.In less-regulated indu stries, by contrast, optional certifications show dedication to continued study and the energy to move ahead, not to mention the additional knowledge or skills involved, according to Sharon Jautz, an HR consultant specializing in online and digital media. However, those certifications once considered a plus are all but required now, Cox said.What does this mean for job seekers weighing the benefits of optional certifications? Priority One is to determine which ones carry the most weight in your industry and specialty (and which are considered all but required), Jautz said. A certification is unlikely to get you onto a short list if the skills involved don’t reflect the kind of job for which you’re applying.Soft credentialsRecruiters also consider soft credentials: your level of experience in specific tasks and responsibilities. Don’t be misled by the “soft” moniker, however; demonstrating the level of experience an employer wants for a specific task is as important as hold ing a required credential or certification.But just meeting the volume of years required isn’t enough.“It’s not how long you’ve been in a job that matters, it’s what you’ve been doing there,” Cox said. Even if the titles are similar, 10 years’ experience in a job with significantly different responsibilities from the one you’re pursuing won’t hold water with discerning employers.“Employers really are looking for practical experience; they want to know not just what was accomplished by a team you were on, they want to know what you actually did besides ‘leadership,’ ” Cox said. “They want to see executives who are willing to get their hands dirty.”And being able to play just one role doesn’t cut it anymore, either.“Everyone’s had to do more with less over the last two or three years, so they can’t afford to hire someone who does strategy really well but just does strategy,” Cox said.“A lot of times, it’s the details of the project work people did that makes a difference. It’s the detail that shows what you did on a team and how effective that was,” Cox said. “When you do that in some specific detail without coming up with a 10-page resume, peopl e will pick you up very quickly.”Therefore, your resume must describe how your leadership or strategic skills set the company up for a great result, Cox said, then describe what part of the work you did yourself to make it happen.Generalists vs. specialistsIf you don’t have the time or money to invest in hard certifications, there are ways you can beef up your soft credentials while you’re on the job. Employers want to see that you have practical experience with many aspects of a position, not just that you led the team and handed off the details, Cox said.“It’s kind of unfair in some ways,” she said. “For the last 10 years, we’ve been looking for specialists; now we’re looking for people who are specialists but also have generalist skills and management skills.”Jautz said new technologies, including the Internet, have changed the way businesses work. Employers now expect senior executives to be able to work directly with a variety of digital tools.Rather than ju st outline a Web-based marketing plan on paper and hand it off to production managers, for example, a marketing executive must demonstrate enough practical understanding of design software, search-engine optimization and other technologies to guide it to completion.“You don’t have to do all of it yourself,” Jautz said, “but you have to be up on the technical skills and be able to understand how it gets done in order to do it.”

How to Empower Your Employees

How to Empower Your Employees How to Empower Your Employees Employers and employees both have unrealistic perceptions about what empowerment is and how its supposed to work in real-time. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision-making about their job in autonomous, independent, self-directed ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of your destiny. Empowerment in the Workplace Empowerment is feeling in control of your work environment and that you have permission to make decisions in the areas you control and are responsible for in your job. When thinking about empowerment in human relations terms, try to avoid thinking of it as something that one individual does for another. This mindset is one of the problems organizations have with the empowerment concept. People think that someone, usually the manager, has to bestow empowerment on the people who report to them. Consequently, the reporting staff members wait for the bestowing of empowerment, and the manager asks why people wont act in empowered ways. This bestowing and waiting has led to general unhappiness, mostly undeserved, with the concept of empowerment in many organizations. Dont let that happen in your organization. Your best success will result from empowered employees taking action- not waiting for permission. How to Think of Empowerment Think of empowerment, instead, as the process of an individual enabling himself to take action and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. Empowerment comes from the individual. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment which helps foster the ability and desire of employees to act in empowered ways. The work organization has the responsibility to remove barriers that limit the ability of staff to act in empowered ways. Think, too, of empowerment as an employee philosophy and strategy that organizations benefit from adopting. Empowered employees, who are operating within an organizations strategic framework that includes mission and goals increase the productivity and effectiveness of the workplace. They are enabled to perform their jobs more efficiently and effectively without feeling as if they are waiting for a decision, waiting for direction, and waiting for permission to act. They become more responsible and accountable when self-direction is the norm. Employee involvement and participative management are often used to mean empowerment. They are not interchangeable. Each describes a different characteristic of an effective workplace. Getting Out of the Way of Employee Empowerment Empowerment is desirable management and organizational style that enables employees to practice autonomy, control their own jobs, and use their skills and abilities to benefit both their organization and themselves. The companys management style should involve sharing the goals, sharing each employees expectations and framework with the employee, and then, getting out of the way while employees were empowered to set goals, accomplish their objectives, and determine how to do their jobs. The empowered organization operates in a team-based structure in which each development team has the authority and autonomy to determine the features and capabilities of their product. They did this in conjunction with the overall technology leadership and with serious input from the marketing team. Empowerment Examples Empowerment in the workspace can take many forms as can be seen in the following examples. Releasing Control The manager of the Human Resources department added weeks to the process of hiring new employees. They required their staff members to obtain a managers signature on every document related to hiring a new employee. Consequently, documents sat on the managers desk in a pile until he had time to review them. Hiring slowed and other departments wondered if they would ever fill that vacant desk. The time problem was brought to the managers attention and the fact that their action impeded empowered behavior. The manager fostered empowerment by telling employees they no longer needed his signature unless the hire involved extraordinary circumstances or an executive position. Frankly Stating What You Need John empowered himself to discuss the career objectives he wished to pursue with his supervisor. He told his supervisor, frankly, that if the opportunities were not available in his current company, he would move on to another company. Mary took charge of her career by fueling her sense of empowerment when she developed a career path plan, met with her manager to ask for her assistance to achieve it, and set goals for its accomplishment in her performance development plan.

5 things you can do today that will make you happier

5 things you can do today that will make you happier 5 things you can do today that will make you happier Nothing feels better than happiness, whether you find it in seeing that super cute cat meme or simply by spending time with your friends. But if you’re still feeling down in the dumps despite the joys of life, keep on reading…We know how important it is to take small steps to appreciate happiness, and so we worked with top life coach  Carole Ann Rice, to reveal the five things we all can do daily to feel that little bit happier.1. Do Something KindThe lovely karmic kick-back starter pack includes but is not limited to: buying and sending flowers unexpectedly to a co-worker or loved one, sending a thank you card to someone who has never stopped supporting you, and passing on a compliment to someone. By knowing that you brightened up someone’s day, it’ll help brighten your own, too.2. Get Your Blood PumpingAs much as we may love to share those studies that suggest we can be allergic to exercise, there are many more ways to get moving than you might suspect that can be major moo d boosters. Dancing, running, swimming, even gentle strolls have a way of boosting the spirit. Try to do so without your phone or going on Airplane mode: go offline to give yourself a chance not to think, just be.3 Relish the Small ThingsIt could be a piping hot cup of coffee before work, a bath enhanced with a lavender bomb, the tweeting of the birds, or a good book to curl up and read. Learning to appreciate the little finer things in life will make it easier to see the beauty in the macro.4. Keep a Blessing BookEach day, whether after waking up or before going to bed, jot down all the things in life you’re grateful for. It could be your friends, having a roof over your head, or even your new Amazon Prime subscription. Whatever it is, itemising it will remind you daily that there are reasons to smile.5. Just Keep SmilingSimple. Smiling is contagious, and the more your smile at others, the more they can’t help but smile back. Even if you’re on the train at 8:30 am commuting t o work, that smile you crack to a passer-by might just be the thing they needed to see.This article was originally published on YourCoffeeBreak.co.uk.

Study finds children gain more weight during the summer months

Study finds children gain more weight during the summer months Study finds children gain more weight during the summer months Weight gain is probably more closely associated with the winter months in most people’s minds. Saying nothing of all of the holidays that close out the year, and all of the snowed in binge eating, our bodies’ fat cells actually react positively to sunlight. These cells reside closest to the skin, so when they become exposed to the blue light created by the sun they begin to shrink, which prohibits them from storing extra fat. Of course, there are other factors that govern periods of intense weight gain. As a new study posits, children have a particularly rough go at sticking to healthy diet regimens in the summer months, particularly on the weekends. Ultimately, a study period spanning more than five years, proved children gain considerably more weight during this period than they do during the winter.  Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!Household food-insecurityThe study titled, Diet Quality and Fruit, Vegetable, and Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption by Household Food Insecurity among 8- to 12-Year-Old Children during the Summer Months, presents findings that contradict conventional wisdom on the subject. It should follow that freedom from school, and warm weather equals more time engaging in physical activity. While that’s true for most children, it’s not enough to combat the excess of sugary beverages and snacks that are synonymous with a balmy day off. The researchers began with a study of a group of 218 children, between the ages of eight and 12-years-old   for six years. Half of the participants were girls, 49% were non-white children, and 25% of the children came from food-insecure households.  The U.S Department of Agriculture defines a food-Insecure household as one that consistently lacks access to foods and nutrients that promote a healthy and active life. Hunger and Health reports, “It is important to know that hunger and food in security are closely related, but distinct, concepts. Hunger refers to a personal, physical sensation of discomfort, while food insecurity refers to a lack of available financial resources for food at the level of the household.”The researchers that conducted the latest study demarcated between food-insecure households and food-secure households by examining the short form of the US Household Food Security Survey. Because children have more access to snacks and sweetened beverages, spend more time staring at screens, and being generally sedentary during the summer months, the researchers behind the paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics implore parents to keep a vigilant eye on their children’s eating habits, in addition to setting a good example by adhering to a balanced diet themselves. The study reports,  â€œWhole fruit and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption varied by food insecurity on weekend days during summer months. Because children t end to gain weight during summer months, efforts to increase weekend access to whole fruits and promote water consumption may contribute to weight gain prevention and healthy development, especially for children from food-insecure households.”A recent study from the London School of Economics and Political Science of over 7, 574 children determined that divorce has a major influence on household food insecurity. Often during times of divorce, families have less money for fruits and vegetables and have to work longer hours which makes them unable to prepare healthy meals for their children. The children in the study group were found to be much more likely to gain weight than other children, the difference was the most profound in children that were subject to divorce under the age of six. Unfortunately, it’s considerably more expensive to adhere to a healthy diet regimen, but there are ways to consistently obtain all the important nutrients that you and your family need on a budg et; little things like buying whole foods as  opposed to more expensive processed products, avoiding name brand products, and establishing a grocery list and making sure you stick to it every week.

This is why youll try harder at age 29, 39, 49, 59 ...

This is why you'll try harder at age 29, 39, 49, 59 ... This is why you'll try harder at age 29, 39, 49, 59 ... If you are feeling a sudden burst of motivation to tackle a big goal, your age may be the cause. For his new book “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing,” author Daniel H. Pink analyzed how people who are in the last year of a decade have more energy and motivation to accomplish extreme and difficult goals.We try harder in the last year of a decadePink cites psychological research that has found that people in the last year of a decade (or nine-enders) - people ages 29, 39, 49, 59, for example - are more motivated to take on big goals like running a marathon for the first time than at any other age. In fact, a first-time marathoner who is a nine-ender  is almost twice as likely to compete in a marathon than people at other ages.In their research, published in 2014, social psychologists Adam Alter and Hal Hershfield found that “people audit the meaningfulness of their lives as they approach a new decade in chronological age,” calling people on this yearlong search f or meaning  â€œnine-enders.” When you are taught to mark  time in decades, calling life stages “the twenties,” and “the thirties,” it makes sense that you start to plan goals around this temporal boundary.Confronted with the encroaching end of another decade of life, we start searching for meaning around us. Some of us start exercising more strenuously. Alter and Hersfield found that nine-enders are more likely to sign up for a marathon. If the nine-enders are already marathon runners, they will post a faster time in their nine-ending year than in the two years before and after that age.Nine-ender motivation is not always goodThis nine-ender phenomenon can backfire though when people assess the meaning of their lives and find it wanting. That’s when the hunt for meaning can become a destructive crisis of faith. This reflection can lead people to reassess their values. For example, the researchers found that male nine-enders were overrepresented on an extramarital affair dating site.In the most extreme crises of faith, people become more likely to take their own life. Looking at U.S. suicide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers found that  the 2000-2011 suicide rate was “higher for nine-enders than among people whose ages ended in any other digit.”“When people feel their lives lack meaning in one of these domains they either respond adaptively, by adopting behaviors that increase the likelihood of finding meaning, or maladaptively, by choosing to act in ways that further rob their lives of meaning,” the researchers said.By the end of a long decade, we see the finish line, and we start assessing what we have accomplished, for better or for worse. This research shows us that time is an inescapable motivator that could be pushing us to make big decisions. We just need to take a step back to make sure they are the right ones.

Transform the (Dreaded) Annual Performance Review

Transform the (Dreaded) Annual Performance Review Transform the (Dreaded) Annual Performance Review Transform the (Dreaded) Annual Performance Review C. Fox, author of PEOPLE TOOLS FOR BUSINESS:  50 Strategies for Building Success, Creating Wealth, and Finding Happiness (SelectBooks, Inc., 2014) In the 1929 movie, The Cocoanuts, the hotel employees of a mustachioed Groucho Marx chased him from the lobby and up a flight of stairs. “We want our money,” they yelled. “What do you mean?” “We want our money,” they repeated. “I don’t understand.   You want whose money?” Groucho shouted back. “You haven’t paid us.   We want to be paid!” “Oh,” says Groucho, pointing directly at them.   “You want my money,” with emphasis on the “my.” I digress, which is not uncommon for me when I am faced with a situation I find uncomfortable. Let’s remove dreaded from the annual performance review and look at this a bit differently. Reviving the Dreaded Annual Performance Review First, why should we think of the employee performance review as being about the employee? Don’t both the employee and employer want the best possible performance? If you are an employee and don’t perform as well as you can, perhaps you lack the proper tools or training. Maybe you don’t feel appreciated and, as a result, are not as involved as you might be. I regard tools, employee training, and the expression of appreciation as the responsibility of the employer, not the employee. Second, why shouldn’t I want to encourage the best performance possible, and pay fairly for that performance? If all of my 45 or so employees felt unfairly treated and failed to show up Monday morning, my business would instantly disappear. Each of them is excellent at what they do and could easily find a position somewhere else. But how could I reconstruct, entirely by myself, the outstanding team which we have built together over the past 45 years? I now regard the (not dreaded) employee performance review as a review of my own performance, not theirs. I think of my employees as co-workers. We work in the same building, write e-mails to outsiders and to each other, talk on the telephone and enjoy lunch in early afternoon. Every one of us is a crew member on the same ship, headed in the same direction. (At Disneyland you would be called a “Cast Member,” which sounds nice but, to me seems more like acting rather than interacting with customers and each other). Today my ideal procedure on the annual employee review is: 1) Keep my co-workers up to date on how they are doing during the year. I offer approval to encourage them, though not as often as I should. I suggest course corrections to help them focus on what needs to be changed. When your flight lands in San Francisco it’s too late to remember that you should have boarded the flight for Chicago. In the old days I would say to an employee after his or her first day on the job, “I’ve decided to renew your option. You can come back tomorrow.” Today I cringe at the thought of how I would feel if my new boss of one day said that to me. Two weeks ago I hired Joy to help with the marketing and promotion of People Tools. At the end of her first week I asked, “Are all of us providing proper information and support so that you can do your best work?” If you have properly helped your co-workers during the year there will be no bad surprises for either of you at the annual review. 2) When it’s time for the annual review, I make sure to conduct it within a week or two of the anniversary date. It’s not fair to my coworkers to delay information which is important to them and keep them walking on eggshells, waiting for “the knife to drop.”   And I don’t want to skulk about the office hiding from someone. 3) Ask each person being reviewed to evaluate him or herself, to write down their accomplishments of the past year and goals for the coming year. Not only does this help your employees learn the valuable skill of self-assessment, it also shows how much you respect and appreciate their opinions. 4) Ask the reviewees what salary they think they deserve. I use recommendation as a guide. Years ago Gert, who worked with me for almost 25 years, always asked for a ten or fifteen percent raise, which was far too high. But at least I knew what she was thinking. One year Cathy, my vice president and general manager, asked for a raise which was far too small. I increased her salary by three times the amount she had requested. 5) During the review I ask how I, or other managers, can better assist our co-worker to perform better. “Replace my seven year old computer,” was one answer. I was embarrassed. I had allowed a valued member of my accounting staff to struggle for two years with entirely outdated equipment. 6) Consider awarding a member of your team a one-time bonus if theyve  made an outstanding contribution to the company that saves time and money, increases profits and productivity, or improves the working conditions in the office. This way, the annual review can be just as much about rewarding employee performance  as it is about offering constructive suggestions on how to improve. Why shouldn’t you want to encourage the best performance possible, and pay fairly for that performance? If all of your employees felt unfairly compensated and failed to show up Monday morning, your business would instantly disappear. Each of them is there because they are good at what they do, and they could always find a position somewhere else. 7) If my goal is to retain my team member for another full year, I sometimes pay part of their increased salary as a bonus at their next anniversary date. We all like something “extra,” and often a $2,000 bonus looms larger than $166.67 a month, before payroll taxes. 8) Be prepared at an annual review to be flexible about hours of work. Some people prefer to begin their work day at 6:00 am and time away from the office for personal matters. One of the biggest perks I enjoy myself, as an entrepreneur and business owner, is that I can set my own hours. I can take off Thursday afternoon and come in on Saturday morning if I like. So I refuse to be a prison warden for my staff. They work with me to accomplish a mission, not to lose their freedom to visit a doctor when they need to, or watch their daughter’s soccer finals. When I improve as a manager, my co-workers improve at their positions. That is why I no longer dread reviewing them, because, in reality, we are helping each other. Let’s take the word “Dreaded” out of the annual performance review. This article is adapted with permission from the publisher, SelectBooks, from PEOPLE TOOLS FOR BUSINESS:   50 Strategies for Building Success, Creating Wealth, and Finding Happiness  by Alan C. Fox. Copyright © 2014. Author Bio: Alan Fox is the president of ACF Property Management, Inc, and author of The New York Times bestseller PEOPLE TOOLS: 54 Strategies for Building Relationships, Creating Joy, and Embracing Prosperity. He has university degrees in accounting, law, education, and professional writing. Fox was employed as a tax supervisor for a national CPA firm, established his own law firm, then founded a commercial real estate company in 1968 that now owns over one billion dollars in real estate. He is the founder, editor, and publisher of Rattle, one of the most respected literary magazines in the United States, and he sits on the board of directors of several non-profit foundations. Visit peopletoolsbook.com. Read More: Showing Respect When Dealing with Performance Issues Compensation: Why Average Salaries Lag at Small Companies Salaries Are Rising for Small Business